The Woodberry Harrier 2018: Volume 1
A
Dappled Thing
This first edition of this year’s Harrier has been long in coming because I’ve been wondering if it
It’s
may about racing, but you don’t understand a cross country season standing at the
finish line of a big race. That speed you see is a long time coming. You’d need
to come on a few LSD runs (for Long Slow Distance) where you’d see a string of
runners on a long country road with no sound but the gravel underfoot and an
occasional cow in the distance. No turning back or stopping. No comfort but the
pace itself. A good race may come from instant courage and inspiration, but
that courage and inspiration come from pounding miles and enduring pain and
keeping faith. A team isn’t formed by a
roster but rather by hard patience, mutual sacrifice, and shared tedium. Not
the stuff of ESPN highlights. No kid takes up running
because it looks easy or cool. It’s no path to stardom. You run because something
in this hard sport calls out to the hard part of you, and you answer that call
with all that you have and all that you are even when the comfort-loving world
thinks you’re a little crazy.
With
each passing year, this sport seems ever more contrary and unbiddable: low tech in an age of gear, simple in an age
of glitz and glam, quiet in an age of publicity. Gerard Manly Hopkins might
well have had runners in mind when he penned these lines:
For
skies of couple-colour as a brinded
cow;
For
rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape
plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And
áll trádes, their gear and tackle and
trim.
All things counter,
original, spare, strange;
Whatever
is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With
swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle,
dim;
He fathers-forth whose
beauty is past change:
Praise him.
It’s
been an odd and hard fall, as you know. The weather has been most disagreeable. A dangerously hot spell followed by a wet
monsoon. I can’t remember a season when so many big meets have been canceled.
And horses get skittish when they are in
the barn too long. To make matters even
worse, we have been nursing some very persistent injuries since camp. But this
week we had the whole squad running together for the first time, and that was
even more exciting than seeing the sun for the first time in two weeks.
It’s
still been a good start to the season.
We had a fine weekend at camp—great runs on some beautiful roads,
meaningful conversations, lots of laughter. We joined St. Christopher’s for a
fun 2-mile scrimmage race at St. Catherine’s Goochland campus after camp. We
have built up some impressive mileage; we have logged in some substantial
workouts; and we have worked through an
intense phase of strength training. We
have made the most of our time. And
the following week we took our top four to the Ragged Mountain Cup in
Charlottesville. Here are the results:
Ragged Mountain Cup (2-mile relay)
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Panorama Farms
Earlysville, VA
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5 September
2018
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Team Finish: 3rd
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Runner
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Place out of 124
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Time
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Fletcher
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5th
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10:28
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6 sec. under
last year
|
Clark
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8th
|
10:41
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32 sec. under
last year
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Watt
|
14th
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10:56
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Garza
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25th
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11:24
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Last weekend we ran in the Fork Union Invitational. Here are those results:
Fork Union Invitational
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Fork Union, VA
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22 September
2018
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12th out of 29 Teams
1-5 spread: 4:42
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Place out of 206
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Time
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Fletcher
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13th
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17:04
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1 sec. under
last year
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Clark
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23rd
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17:31
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46 sec. under
last year
|
Watt
|
37th
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17:57
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Garza
|
80th
|
18:59
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first race for
WFS
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Boney
|
174th
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21:46
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first race for
WFS
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Daniels
|
205th
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25:32
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This week we host the Woodberry Invitational. We hope to see some of you there.
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